For a detailed guide to Venice the reader must go elsewhere; all that I have done is invariably to mention those things that have most interested me, and, in the hope of being a useful companion, often a few more.

But my chief wish (as always in this series) has been to create a taste.
For the history of Venice the reader must also go elsewhere, yet for the sake of clarity a little history has found its way even into these pages.

To go to Venice without first knowing her story is a mistake, and doubly foolish because the city has been peculiarly fortunate in her chroniclers and eulogists.

Mr.H.F.Brown stands first among the living, as Ruskin among the dead; but Ruskin is for the student patient under chastisement, whereas Mr.Brown's serenely human pages are for all.

Of Mr.Howells' _Venetian Life_ I have spoken more than once in this book; its truth and vivacity are a proof of how little the central Venice has altered, no matter what changes there may have been in government or how often campanili fall.